(a) Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a pedal driven, screw-propelled water saddle for ride on a smooth sea, on a lake or, more generally, on any relatively calm water surface.
This invention more especially relates to a screw-propelled water-saddle of the type comprising two parallel floats properly spaced apart and joined to each other by at least one emerging cross-member, a central supporting-bar attached between the floats, a saddle mounted onto the supporting-bar and on which may seat the rider, and a combined propelling and steering device.
(b) Description of the prior art
A few models of screw-propelled, pedal driven, water saddle have already been proposed, such as, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,578,395 Mar. 30, 1926 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,663,278 Dec. 22, 1953.
These known models each comprise one or more floats onto which is installed a standard bike frame equipped with a saddle, a crank-gear and a handle-bar.
The crank-gear may be equipped with tows attached under each pedal, or may drive an immerged screw-propeller. The handle-bar serves to direct one of the floats or a vertical helm.
If, up to now, those known models to a certain extent have proved to be rather satisfying, they nevertheless remain heavy, slow, hard to drive and steer and hardly movable from one place to another. Moreover, most of these known models have the major drawback of being unstable; the saddle being too high with regard to the floats.